Toysmith Case Study
About Toysmith
The Toysmith story began in 1981, and for over 38 years, the company has built a reputation of trust and customer service within the toy industry, manufacturing and distributing high-quality toys and gifts. We are proud and humbled by our legacy of delivering best-in-class customer service and apply that standard throughout Toysmith. Toysmith brands and products are sold to toy retailers, education markets, museums, zoos, aquariums, national parks, attractions, theme parks, gift stores, specialty catalogs and internet retailers
The Opportunity
We had recently transitioned to a new Warehouse Management System (WMS). As part of this transition, the primary shipping process was to include pre-manifestation along with a cartonisation routine. Unfortunately, the WMS routine was not delivering the fill rate as expected, and we saw an average fill rate of only 68%. This resulted in an increase in our labor, materials, and most importantly, our freight spend. Essentially we were headed in the wrong direction.
Toysmith reviewed several different options and after careful review chose to work with MagicLogic. Our initial test was a proof of concept with MagicLogic. We took one month’s cartonisation data from our shipping within the WMS and re-ran it through the BlackBox solution. Those results were then run through our existing freight analysis.
The results showed a significant improvement in all areas, an overall reduction in the number of cartons per shipment, increased fill rate per carton and a decrease in the freight spend.
Solution
Once we realised the opportunity at hand, we quickly partnered with Accellos and MagicLogic for customisation to introduce BlackBox as our cartonisation solution. Both teams were outstanding. It was a quick process and the solution was tested and delivered to us within 45 days.
In our final test, we ran a similar analysis as we had done before, with a smaller sample size. This confirmed what we hoped to see… a consistent fill rate and an improved freight percent.
Results
We have reviewed the results in a couple of different manners. First, and perhaps the easiest was the eye test. It is obvious now through just visual observation that the cartons look significantly different. Additionally, we are seeing a consistent fill rate. We currently have set it at 83%. Now all cartons are being filled close to the top of each box.
This has reduced the time at packing. We are no longer spending as much time cutting down our boxes to pack out the carton. In most cases the packers now add a small amount of void, fill the box and then send it down the shipping line. We have also analysed our average revenue per carton, which has increased by 12 to 15 percent.